HUNTINGTON BEACH – A Huntington Beach police officer's exoneration for planting a loaded gun in a suspect's car has led to the revelation that police routinely plant evidence in unsuspecting civilians' vehicles for training exercises.

Chief Kenneth Small said Friday that police plant contraband – including unloaded weapons, fake drugs and drug paraphernalia – in suspects' vehicles after they're arrested as a method of training new officers in searches.

stupid...stupid.. but when I was in the military as a cop, working special security we used to pull over military vehicles that were going to go through a check point and plant things like pieces of wood that said "bomb" on them. We did that so the person driving the vehicle would act a little nervous and hopefully tip off the MP doing the inspecting.

Most of the time it was found, but, never did we plant guns,drugs or things like that and always with the person's permission. Doing what they were doing with civilians could get somebody killed for no reason at all.